Security forces in Uganda stormed the offices of the country’s largest independent media house overnight, forcing two television stations off air and threatening the closure of its flagship newspaper, after the president’s son and military chief ordered the shutdown.
NTV Uganda and Spark TV went off air at about 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Sunday, hours after armed personnel surrounded the Kampala headquarters of Nation Media Group (NMG), the company that owns them.
Viewers were left looking at blank screens reading “video unavailable”. The Daily Monitor newspaper, Uganda’s leading independent daily, was also targeted, though it was unclear by Sunday morning whether its operations had been halted.
Order came from the president’s son
The shutdown was ordered by Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces and the son of President Yoweri Museveni, who has run the East African country since 1986.
In a post on X at 01:07 local time, Gen Muhoozi wrote: “NTV and Monitor are being shut down from today!” He followed it with another post declaring: “Both NTV and Monitor will not re-open without my permission.”
In an earlier post, he had written: “In Uganda, I DO NOT believe in a free press! The press should be guided by cadres of the revolution.”
The posts escalated threats Gen Muhoozi had made over the previous week, during which he said repeatedly that he was waiting for his father’s permission to move against the broadcaster.
What happened overnight
The security operation began shortly after midnight, with personnel deployed both at NMG’s premises in the Namuwongo area of Kampala and at the city’s Serena Hotel. Staff said no one was allowed to enter or leave the compound.
NTV continued broadcasting an Al Jazeera simulcast as late as 04:45, almost four hours after the operation began, before the channel and Spark TV finally went dark. Two NMG-owned radio stations, 93.3 KFM and 90.4 Dembe FM, also appeared to go off air, with no explanation given.
By daybreak, security personnel were still stationed at both sites, and staff inside said they remained unable to leave.
No Ugandan state body — not the army, the police, or the broadcasting regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission — had issued a statement explaining the operation or citing any legal order by the time of publication. NMG had not commented either.
Pattern of pressure on Uganda’s press
NMG’s Ugandan operations include NTV Uganda – which has been on air for 20 years – the Daily Monitor, The East African, Spark TV, KFM, Dembe FM, the Ennyanda newspaper and the Nation Courier.
The group has faced mounting pressure from the authorities in the run-up to and aftermath of January’s disputed presidential election, which Mr Museveni won with 71.65% of the vote, extending his rule into a seventh term. His nearest challenger, opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi – known as Bobi Wine – took 24.72%.
NMG journalists have been barred from covering President Museveni’s events since March 2025, a restriction a presidential spokesman said had been ordered personally by Mr Museveni over what he called repeated misreporting. In October 2025, the group’s reporters had their parliamentary accreditation withdrawn.
Press freedom groups have repeatedly raised alarm over the treatment of Ugandan journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented widespread attacks on reporters – including beatings and brief detentions of NMG staff – during a March 2025 by-election, prompting three major outlets to temporarily pull their journalists from coverage.
Sunday’s shutdown is not the first time the authorities have moved directly against NMG’s Ugandan operations. In May 2013, police raided the Daily Monitor and Dembe FM over the publication of a letter linking senior officials to an alleged succession plan known as the “Muhoozi Project”; the premises remained sealed for more than a week. In February 2007, just two months after its launch, NTV Uganda was forced off air over claims its coverage was negative. Mr Museveni has in the past described the Daily Monitor as an “enemy and evil newspaper”.
Despite the repeated confrontations, NMG has continued to brand itself “Uganda’s Bold Voice” in the run-up to the 2026 election, and past closures have drawn condemnation from local and international media freedom organisations.
It is not yet clear how long Sunday’s blackout will last, or whether the Daily Monitor’s print and online operations will also be suspended. The BBC has not been able to independently verify Gen Muhoozi’s authority to order the shutdown, and there has been no comment yet from the Ugandan government, the police or the Uganda Communications Commission.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
